THREE TRAILS COMBINE INTO SCENIC LOOP

Mountain to desert loop

Thomas Brothers map: Page 1176, 4-J, about where S1 makes a deep curve away from the northeast side of Lake Cuyamaca.

Before you go: The best map I’ve found for this loop is Tom Harrison Maps’ Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Trail Map, available at outdoor stores such as REI and Adventure 16 or online ($9.95,
www.tomharrisonmaps.com). The loop route can also be found on the Pacific Crest Trail map — both the U.S. Forest Service PCT map for Southern California as well as new Halfmile PCT Maps available for free download online. For the Halfmile map of this area, go to www.pctmap.net/p/mapdl.html and then go to Page 8 of the California Section A Map (Mexican Border to Warner Springs).

Trailhead: Park at the Pedro Fages Monument parking area off Sunrise Highway, S1, at the 36-mile marker, about 22.5 miles north of S1’s intersection with I-8, or about 1.7 miles south of S1’s intersection with Highway 79, just north of Cuyamaca.

Distance: The total loop is about 6.7 miles with about 1,000 feet in elevation change.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous.

Priscilla Lister

Combine three trails for a wide loop from mountain meadows down toward the desert, and you’ll see abundant spring wildflowers and vast views of wilderness.

Begin at the Pedro Fages Monument near the northern end of Sunrise Highway, S1. The California Historical Landmark No. 858 commemorates Oct. 29, 1772, when Spanish Colonel Pedro Fages headed east from San Diego searching for army deserters.

“It was the first entry by Europeans into Oriflamme Canyon,” says the monument. Fages led the first Europeans from here into the Colorado Desert, which stretches from Anza-Borrego north to Mojave, and eventually continued to San Luis Obispo.

The Fages expedition might well have taken the route we follow here, or one very close to it, that would have even then followed an old Kumeyaay route between the Laguna Mountains and the desert.

From the Fages monument, head east on the California Riding & Hiking Trail. You’ll begin this loop through this high-mountain meadow of Laguna, where spring wildflowers are truly abundant.

If you hike here in early April, you should be treated to one of the mountains’ annual spring glories: large colonies of goldfields — tiny yellow sunflowers — that virtually paint the landscape a soft yellow here just northeast of Lake Cuyamaca.

Hiking along with me through those wildflowers was a coyote, watching me watch him.

After about 1.36 miles, you’ll come to a junction with the Mason Valley Truck Trail, a dirt road that leads to the Pacific Crest Trail. You’ll come back up via this road, but for now, go right at this junction, past the gate, and in just 0.09 mile, you’ll reach the PCT. Head left (east) on the trail, which heads down into the desert from here.

Now you’re gazing at the enormous desert below from this perch at about 4,700 feet up. It’s one of those wondrous sights of mountains and canyons and valleys afforded from the eastern side of Laguna down to the desert.